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His Top Secret job turned him into a LEGEND · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: Today, I'm going to cover three stories that all became
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Speaker 1: hugely famous as fiction. However, what most people don't know
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Speaker 1: is they're actually based on real life events and these
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Speaker 1: real stories are wild and those are what I'm sharing
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Speaker 1: with you today. But before we get into today's stories,
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Speaker 1: if you're a fan of the strange, dark and mysterious
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Speaker 1: delivered in story format, and you've come to the right place,
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Speaker 1: because that's all we do, and we upload two, three,
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Speaker 1: even four times every week.
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Speaker 2: So if that's of interest to you.
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Speaker 1: Please sneak into the like button's house and replace their
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Speaker 1: dish soap with cooking oil. Also, please subscribe to our
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Speaker 1: channel and turn on all notifications so you don't miss
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Speaker 1: any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's stories.
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Speaker 1: One night in May of eighteen ninety six, a young
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Speaker 1: opera singer sat inside of her dressing room at the
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Speaker 1: Palais Garnier, which is this.
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Speaker 2: Huge, beautiful theater in Paris, France.
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Speaker 1: A little while earlier, she finished a performance of a
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Speaker 1: very famous opera, and now she was getting changed and
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Speaker 1: taking off her makeup. However, as she was doing this,
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Speaker 1: she suddenly heard this sound in the theater that immediately
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Speaker 1: sent goosebumps up and down her body. It sounded like
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Speaker 1: a man was singing somewhere out there, and his voice
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Speaker 1: was very deep and very sad. And really it wasn't
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Speaker 1: so much the sound of the voice that was so unsettling.
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Speaker 1: It was just the fact that she was hearing anybody
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Speaker 1: in the theater at all. I mean, she should have
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Speaker 1: been alone in the theater. As far as she knew,
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Speaker 1: all of the other performers and crew members had already
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Speaker 1: gone home.
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Speaker 2: So who was this?
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Speaker 1: And so she left her room and she stepped out
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Speaker 1: into the hallway and just began looking around, you know,
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Speaker 1: thinking maybe one of the other opera singers had maybe
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Speaker 1: stayed behind without her knowing. But she didn't see anybody
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Speaker 1: else backstage. And as she listened carefully to again this
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Speaker 1: man who was still singing somewhere in the theater, she
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Speaker 1: realized that the voice was actually coming from below her.
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Speaker 1: And this revelation made her go from just being unsettled
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Speaker 1: to being genuinely scared. So before she had ever worked
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Speaker 1: in this theater, she'd actually heard a rumor about this theater.
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Speaker 1: It was said that for the past several years, a
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Speaker 1: man had been secretly living inside of this theater, and
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Speaker 1: apparently the same man had been horribly injured in a
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Speaker 1: fire at a different theater that was nearby, and now
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Speaker 1: he was too scared to show his face in public,
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Speaker 1: so he squatted in the basement and the walls of
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Speaker 1: the Palais Garnier and only ever came out at night
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Speaker 1: when he believed.
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Speaker 2: He was alone.
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Speaker 1: Now, this woman, this young opera singer, had always assumed that,
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Speaker 1: you know, this was just obviously some legend made up
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Speaker 1: to scare people, or maybe even to entice people to
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Speaker 1: come to this theater.
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Speaker 2: But now standing in the hallway and clearly hearing this.
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Speaker 1: Strange, sad voice echoing up from beneath her feet, she
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Speaker 1: really couldn't help but feel like maybe this story is true.
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Speaker 2: And how terrifying a thought that was.
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Speaker 1: However, as she stood there listening to this voice, she
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Speaker 1: sort of slowly began to convince herself that maybe it
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Speaker 1: actually wasn't a man's voice, Maybe this was the sound
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Speaker 1: of water moving through the pipes or something like that.
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Speaker 1: I mean, to be honest, that the sound was sort
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Speaker 1: of far away, and she's thinking, maybe I'm convincing myself
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Speaker 1: this is an actual person's voice.
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Speaker 2: Maybe it's not, And so she's sitting.
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Speaker 1: There listening, and sure enough, after a couple of minutes,
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Speaker 1: she really had convinced herself that, no, this is not
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Speaker 1: a person. This is just like late night sounds the
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Speaker 1: theater makes. And I'm not really here a lot by myself,
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Speaker 1: and I've never heard this before, so this is nothing.
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Speaker 1: And so she quickly, you know, because she told herself
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Speaker 1: she was convinced of this, but deep down she wasn't.
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Speaker 1: But she quickly went back intoward room, she gathered up
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Speaker 1: her things, and she left for the night. A few
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Speaker 1: days later, on the evening of May twentieth, that same
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Speaker 1: young opera singer was waiting in the wings just off stage.
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Speaker 2: She and the rest of.
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Speaker 1: The cast were in the middle of a performance, and
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Speaker 1: she was waiting for her queue to go on stage.
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Speaker 1: But as she was watching the show from backstage, she
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Speaker 1: suddenly saw movement.
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Speaker 2: Above the stage, way up in the rafters.
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Speaker 1: And she looked up and she saw there was a
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Speaker 1: man in dark clothes who was up there. Now, at first,
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Speaker 1: she thought, you know, maybe this man is a stage hand,
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Speaker 1: but as she continued to look at him, she realized
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Speaker 1: he wasn't doing anything. He was just crouched up there
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Speaker 1: sort of hiding from everybody else, just sort of staring down.
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Speaker 2: At the performance like he was watching the performance.
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Speaker 1: But then, you know, as this young opera singer is
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Speaker 1: staring up at the sky, he suddenly turned and looked
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Speaker 1: right at her. And this young singer she had to
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Speaker 1: hold back a gasp because this man's face was obviously
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Speaker 1: just totally disfigured by what appeared to be burned scars,
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Speaker 1: and so terrified, this woman turns, she rushes and grabs
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Speaker 1: a crew member and she points up into the rafters
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Speaker 1: and says, there's somebody up there. But when they both
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Speaker 1: looked up again, the man in dark clothes with the
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Speaker 1: burned face was gone. Now, the young singer, she felt
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Speaker 1: certain that what she had seen just moments before was real,
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Speaker 1: but the crew member was looking at her like, are
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Speaker 1: you sure you saw that? Like this seems pretty far fetched,
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Speaker 1: Like why would anyone be up there? Certainly not some
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Speaker 1: random person, Like what are you talking about? And so
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Speaker 1: she didn't know what to do, but the show she
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Speaker 1: was in had to go on. About an hour later,
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Speaker 1: the young singer was standing on stage and bowing in
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Speaker 1: front of a crowd of nearly two thousand people. She
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Speaker 1: and the rest of the cast had just finished performing
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Speaker 1: Act one, and the young singer had barely made it
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Speaker 1: through the performance because she was still so shaken up
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Speaker 1: by what she had seen backstage, you know, up in
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Speaker 1: the rafters. All she wanted to do was get off
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Speaker 1: stage and spend intermission calming down. But now, even though
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Speaker 1: it was only the end of Act one, the crowd
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Speaker 1: was so excited and they loved the performance she had
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Speaker 1: just done so much they were calling for her, specifically
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Speaker 1: her to do an encore of her last aria. The
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Speaker 1: singer knew she didn't really have a choice, so she
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Speaker 1: nodded to the conductor and then reluctantly stepped forward and
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Speaker 1: restarted the piece, And as she sang, her anxiety actually
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Speaker 1: began to melt away. She let herself get lost in
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Speaker 1: the music. She closed her eyes and she belted a
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Speaker 1: high note.
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Speaker 2: But suddenly she heard this, this ear splitting bang.
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Speaker 1: And she opened her eyes just in time to see
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Speaker 1: a brief flash of light. Then she watched in horror
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Speaker 1: as the giant glass chandelier that hung above the audience
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Speaker 1: came crashing down and landed directly on top of a woman,
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Speaker 1: killing her instantly. Police immediately launched an investigation into the
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Speaker 1: falling chandelier, but quickly determined that the whole thing was really.
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Speaker 2: Just a freak accident.
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Speaker 1: They said that one of the chandelier's candles had caused
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Speaker 1: a small fire, which had melted the cord that held
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Speaker 1: it up and caused it to fall. But the young
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Speaker 1: singer she didn't believe this because she'd seen that burned
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Speaker 1: man in the rafters just you know, less than an
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Speaker 1: hour before the disaster, and she couldn't help but feel
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Speaker 1: like he was to blame, and her theory, as wild
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Speaker 1: as it sounded, actually gained traction. Eventually, a journalist named
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Speaker 1: Gaston LaRue heard about it and started his own investigation.
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Speaker 1: He spent weeks searching for the burned man, even showing
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Speaker 1: up unannounced at the theater at different times of day
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Speaker 1: and night to try to catch him, but he never did. However,
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Speaker 1: Gaston did track down some construction workers who had helped
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Speaker 1: build the theater twenty years earlier, and they claimed they
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Speaker 1: knew exactly who the burn man was. So before the
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Speaker 1: garnier was built, there had been another theater right down
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Speaker 1: the block, but that theater had been completely destroyed by
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Speaker 1: a fire twenty years earlier, in eighteen seventy three, On
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Speaker 1: the night of that fire, a young pianist named Ernest
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Speaker 1: had been inside the building working on a wedding march
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Speaker 1: for his fiance, who was a ballerina at the theater.
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Speaker 1: Out of nowhere, he began to smell smoke, and then
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Speaker 1: before he knew it, flames blocked his.
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Speaker 2: Only way out. He had no choice but to.
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Speaker 1: Run through the flames, and by doing that he suffered
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Speaker 1: terrible facial injuries, but he would survive. Unfortunately, though his
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Speaker 1: fiance did not make it out.
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Speaker 2: She died in the fire.
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Speaker 1: The construction workers told Gueston that after this horrible tragedy,
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Speaker 1: Ernest had sort of removed himself from society, like not
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Speaker 1: only did the burns make it difficult for him to be.
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Speaker 2: In public, he was self conscious, but.
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Speaker 1: Also he was racked with grief about losing his fiance,
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Speaker 1: And so they said Ernest had taken refuge in the
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Speaker 1: basement of the Palais Garnier, which at this point was
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Speaker 1: just under construction, and the construction workers said they heard
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Speaker 1: Ernest playing the piano at all hours in this basement,
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Speaker 1: obsessively trying to finish that wedding march. For his fiance,
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Speaker 1: and often while he was doing this, he was screaming
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Speaker 1: and crying out in agony. Now, the workers told Guston
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Speaker 1: that eventually they stopped hearing Ernest and they assumed at
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Speaker 1: that point he had left or maybe even died, or
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Speaker 1: they said, you know, it's possible they never heard him
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Speaker 1: at all, and they had convinced themselves that they.
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Speaker 2: Were hearing him down there, you know, they didn't know.
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Speaker 1: But then after that, performers at the now finished Palais
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Speaker 1: Garnier reported hearing this the sad voice singing after hours
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Speaker 1: in the building, and some even reported seeing a scarred man,
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Speaker 1: you know, the scars on his face, creeping around the
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Speaker 1: dark corners of the theater. But when these people would
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Speaker 1: periodically investigate to see where it was coming from and
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Speaker 1: who is that, nobody was ever there. And so after
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Speaker 1: hearing this from these construction workers, guest On LaRue, the journalist, was,
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Speaker 1: you know, sort of conflicted in a way. On the
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Speaker 1: one hand, you know, he was sort of disturbed by
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Speaker 1: you know, these two tragedies separated by twenty years. You
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Speaker 1: have the fire that claim the life of Ernest's fiance,
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Speaker 1: and you know, apparently badly hurt Earnest, and then you
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Speaker 1: have this this chandelier falling and killing a guest at
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Speaker 1: the theater at the Palais Gargnier twenty years later. So like,
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Speaker 1: that was horrible, that was tragic, But more than that,
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Speaker 1: the feeling that Gaston had was that he felt sort
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Speaker 1: of deeply moved by the story of Ernest's love for
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Speaker 1: his fiance. You know, whether or not the story was
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Speaker 1: even true, whether or not he really did go into
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Speaker 1: the basement as construction was being done and you know,
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Speaker 1: try to finish that song for his dead fiance, it
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Speaker 1: didn't really matter.
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Speaker 2: It was like that, combined with.
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Speaker 1: These rumors of there being, you know, this ghost in
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Speaker 1: the theater, it was just kind of moving. The idea that,
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Speaker 1: you know, poor Ernest and his fiance, you know, that's
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Speaker 1: what stuck out to the to the journalist and so
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Speaker 1: at Gaston ended up writing a book about the story,
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Speaker 1: and the book was then adapted into one of the
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Speaker 1: most famous musicals of all time. Today, Ernest is more
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Speaker 1: often known by the nickname that Gaston LaRue gave him,
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Speaker 1: save the every day. On September twenty ninth, nineteen thirty nine,
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Speaker 1: a British intelligence agent walked through the door of the
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Speaker 1: Royal Navy Headquarters in London with an envelope tucked under
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Speaker 1: his arm. When he stepped inside, a dorman stopped him
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Speaker 1: and asked to see his pass. The agent flashed a
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Speaker 1: badge that identified himself by the code name seventeen F,
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Speaker 1: and the dorman simply nodded and led him through.
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Speaker 2: Agent seventeen F then continued.
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Speaker 1: Farther into the building and he went down this long, silent,
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Speaker 1: white hallway to a black door.
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Speaker 2: With the number thirty nine painted on it.
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Speaker 1: After looking around to make sure nobody was watching him,
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Speaker 1: he reached down and he turned the handle and pushed
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Speaker 1: the door open, and right away he was hit by
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Speaker 1: this brightly lit office and inside it was absolutely chaotic.
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Speaker 2: The air was full of smoke from tobacco.
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Speaker 1: Telephones were ringing off the hook, typewriters were clattering away,
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Speaker 1: and men in dark suits were rushing back and forth.
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Speaker 1: This was the office of Great Britain's Director of Naval Intelligence,
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Speaker 1: and World War Two had just broken out just a
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Speaker 1: few weeks ago, so everything was nuts. The spies that
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Speaker 1: worked in this office were literally out gathering intel and
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Speaker 1: analyzing data and also coming up with creative, sort of
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Speaker 1: crazy ways to literally trick the enemy. Now, Agent seventeen
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Speaker 1: F was not actually an intelligence agent. He was the
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Speaker 1: director's personal assistant, so he had no spy training, but
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Speaker 1: he was very creative and had a way of coming
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Speaker 1: up with schemes that were so crazy they just might work,
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Speaker 1: and that really was a skill the department desperately needed
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Speaker 1: right now. The director was really practical and analytical and pragmatic,
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Speaker 1: and so he sort of liked having someone around in
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Speaker 1: his personal assistance, seventeen F, whose thought patterns were just
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Speaker 1: much more colorful. I mean, he really thought differently than
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Speaker 1: the director. So Agent seventeen F very casually walked into
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Speaker 1: this chaotic room and he strolled across the floor and
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Speaker 1: he reached the director's door and he knocked, and a
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Speaker 1: moment later, the director called for him to come in,
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Speaker 1: and seventeen F walked inside, walked right over to the
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Speaker 1: desk where the director was sitting, and he dropped that
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Speaker 1: envelope he was carrying right on the desk, and the
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Speaker 1: director picked it up. He opened the envelope and started
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Speaker 1: reading what was inside, and as the director's eyes scanned
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Speaker 1: the page, Agent seventeen F couldn't help but see what
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Speaker 1: looked like an annoyed look come across the director's face.
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Speaker 1: So inside the envelope was a list of ideas that
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Speaker 1: seventeen F had come up with for spreading misinformation to
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Speaker 1: the Germans. Basically, they were ways to confuse and misdirect
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Speaker 1: the German military by giving them fake information about what
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Speaker 1: the British.
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Speaker 2: Were up to.
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Speaker 1: Now, this is a very normal thing that virtually every
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Speaker 1: military does during a time of war, but these specific
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Speaker 1: strategies that Agent seventeen F had come up with on
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Speaker 1: this list were really out there. I mean, even for
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Speaker 1: his own standards, these were sort of wild. For example,
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Speaker 1: on this list there was included this idea to have
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Speaker 1: the British drop soccer balls covered in reflective paint into
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Speaker 1: the ocean so that enemy submarines would mistake them for explosives.
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Speaker 1: There was another suggestion to put fake intelligence messages into
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Speaker 1: literal bottles and just set them loose at sea and
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Speaker 1: hope Germans found them. Seventeen F also said he wanted
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Speaker 1: to mail out fake copies of The Times newspaper with
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Speaker 1: made up news stories and made.
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Speaker 2: Up headlines to again sort of trick their enemy.
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Speaker 1: And so Agent seventeen F had been pretty excited to
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Speaker 1: share this list with the director. I mean, he was
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Speaker 1: proud of these ideas, but now, you know, looking at
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Speaker 1: the director, it seemed like he was just getting really
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Speaker 1: frustrated and so seventeen F wondered if maybe he'd pushed
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Speaker 1: it too far. But just then the director stopped and
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Speaker 1: clearly was fixated on one particular idea on this list,
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Speaker 1: and he looked up at seventeen F and he said, actually,
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Speaker 1: this one, this one seems workable. So the idea that
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Speaker 1: the director liked was actually based on something that happened
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Speaker 1: in a crime novel that Agent seventeen F had read.
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Speaker 2: Agent seventeen F was suggesting that they.
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Speaker 1: Borrow a corpse from the naval hospital, dress it in
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Speaker 1: a British pilot's uniform, and put fake dispatches in its
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Speaker 1: pockets with details of a supposed military operation. They then
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Speaker 1: put a faulty parachute on the corpse's back and fly
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Speaker 1: over the German coast and drop the corpse out onto
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Speaker 1: the beach.
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Speaker 2: And when the Germans found the corpse, the.
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Speaker 1: Idea was that they would obviously assume that this was
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Speaker 1: an actual pilot who had died when his parachute failed.
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Speaker 1: And then if they believed that, well, they'd very likely
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Speaker 1: believe that the information the British agents planted in the
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Speaker 1: corpse's pockets were actual military secrets that they'd intercepted, and
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Speaker 1: so in the end the director told Agent seventeen F that,
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Speaker 1: you know what, this list, this is.
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Speaker 2: Actually pretty good.
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Speaker 1: He did a good job, after all, And so by
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Speaker 1: the time Agent seventeen F left the director's office and
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Speaker 1: walked over to his own desk in the corner, he
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Speaker 1: was feeling proud that at least one of his big
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Speaker 1: swings had potentially landed. Four years later, at a pivotal
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Speaker 1: moment in World War II, the British put a version
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Speaker 1: of seventeen F's plan into action. They called it Operation Mincemeat,
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Speaker 1: and amazingly it worked. British spies did plant a corpse
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Speaker 1: out on the beach with the faulty parachute with documents
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Speaker 1: in its pockets saying that the Allied Powers of America
17:53
Speaker 1: and Britain were going to invade Greece and Sardinia, which
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Speaker 1: prompted the Germans to move a ton of their troops
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Speaker 1: away from the Allies real target, which was the island
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Speaker 1: of Sicily. Sicily is part of Italy, and Italy was
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Speaker 1: allied with Germany during World War two, and so thanks
18:10
Speaker 1: in part to Operation mince Meat, you know, seventeen F's
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Speaker 1: big idea, the Germans were totally caught off guard by
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Speaker 1: the invasion of Sicily, and the Allies captured the entire island.
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Speaker 1: This then paved the way for an invasion of mainland Italy,
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Speaker 1: which was a major turning.
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Speaker 2: Point in the war.
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Speaker 1: And again it was all because of this one idea
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Speaker 1: inspired by Agent seventeen F. Now, to be clear, agent
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Speaker 1: seventeen F was not personally there for the invasion, and
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Speaker 1: he didn't publicly get credit for his role in planning it,
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Speaker 1: even though Operation mince Meat would become pretty famous. But
18:43
Speaker 1: a nonymenity was super important for anyone working in intelligence,
18:47
Speaker 1: which seventeen F was, and when the war ended, seventeen
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Speaker 1: F might have stayed a ghost forever. But one slow
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Speaker 1: afternoon at the end of the war, when the chaos
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Speaker 1: in Room thirty nine had died down and there were
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Speaker 1: only a couple dozen people still working out of that office,
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Speaker 1: Agent seventeen F was sitting at his desk in the
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Speaker 1: corner and the other agents nearby were talking to each
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Speaker 1: other about what they were going to do next, and
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Speaker 1: Agent seventeen F, even though he wasn't a part of
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Speaker 1: their conversation internally, he sort of asked himself the same question,
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Speaker 1: like what am I going to do next?
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Speaker 2: I mean, he was so good at.
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Speaker 1: Coming up with these wild ideas, and he really had
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Speaker 1: so much fun doing it, Like how could he just
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Speaker 1: stop doing that and go have a normal job? Like
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Speaker 1: this was his calling, doing what he did now is
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Speaker 1: the only thing he wanted to do. But then he
19:35
Speaker 1: realized as he was sitting there that maybe he didn't
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Speaker 1: have to stop doing this after the war. For years,
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Speaker 1: Agent seventeen f kept on coming up with fantastical spy ideas,
19:49
Speaker 1: but this time, instead of giving these ideas to the government,
19:52
Speaker 1: he wrote them all down with the intention of someday
19:56
Speaker 1: making a book around these ideas, and finally, in nineteen
20:00
Speaker 1: fifty three he published the first book under his real name,
20:04
Speaker 1: Ian Fleming, and his book was wildly successful, and he
20:08
Speaker 1: went on to write more books all about this same
20:12
Speaker 1: character who was a spy, and that spy's name was
20:16
Speaker 1: James Bond. One fall afternoon in eighteen thirty, a beaver
20:37
Speaker 1: trapper named Smith and his hunting partner, whose name was Baumann,
20:40
Speaker 1: hiked through the Bitterroot Mountains, which is a section of
20:43
Speaker 1: the Rocky Mountains in southwestern Montana.
20:45
Speaker 2: Now where they were headed.
20:46
Speaker 1: Was this remote pond deep in the woods that was
20:49
Speaker 1: rumored to be full of beavers. However, despite that, nobody
20:54
Speaker 1: really ever dared to go there because the area was
20:57
Speaker 1: also said to be cursed. Now, the reasoning behind this rumor,
21:01
Speaker 1: the cursed rumor, is that about a year ago, a
21:05
Speaker 1: hunter had traveled to the pond on his own, and
21:07
Speaker 1: he'd never come back home. And eventually miners had passed
21:10
Speaker 1: through that area and they found his body, and his
21:13
Speaker 1: body had basically been torn to shreds and actually partially eaten,
21:18
Speaker 1: and so naturally rumors had begun to spread that, you know,
21:21
Speaker 1: this pond was home to some kind of man eating monster.
21:25
Speaker 1: But Smith and Bauman, they didn't believe in curses or monsters.
21:29
Speaker 1: They believed in money, and they knew that they'd make
21:32
Speaker 1: a lot of money from all the beavers they would
21:34
Speaker 1: catch at this pond. And so, after several hours of
21:37
Speaker 1: hiking through the forest, Smith and Bauman did finally arrive
21:41
Speaker 1: at this cursed pond, and they hurried to set up
21:44
Speaker 1: their camp. They gathered firewood and they built a lean
21:47
Speaker 1: to where they would stay for the next few nights,
21:49
Speaker 1: and then after that they set up a few beaver
21:50
Speaker 1: traps around the pond, and then followed this nearby stream
21:54
Speaker 1: several miles uphill and set.
21:56
Speaker 2: Up beaver traps along the way.
21:57
Speaker 1: And so when they were done setting all these traps
22:00
Speaker 1: around sunset, Smith and Bauman decided to head back to
22:03
Speaker 1: their camp the lean.
22:04
Speaker 2: Too they had set up and make some dinner and
22:06
Speaker 2: then go to bed.
22:07
Speaker 1: And so down the hill they went, and they're they're
22:10
Speaker 1: getting closer and closer to their campsite, and keep in mind,
22:13
Speaker 1: there's nobody else out here.
22:15
Speaker 2: They are in the middle of the forest.
22:17
Speaker 1: And as they're approaching their campsite, when they got within
22:20
Speaker 1: range and could actually see it, they just stopped because
22:24
Speaker 1: they're lean to. They had put together as soon as
22:26
Speaker 1: they got there, you know, they're lean to, and all
22:28
Speaker 1: their gear had basically been torn to shreds. It's like
22:31
Speaker 1: their campsite had a tornado come through it, and everything
22:34
Speaker 1: was just kind of all over the place, and there
22:37
Speaker 1: was no people, no animals, no nothing. It was like
22:39
Speaker 1: something had happened while they were up the hills setting
22:41
Speaker 1: up these traps. Now, Smith and Bauman their reaction was not, oh,
22:45
Speaker 1: my goodness, like a monster came through here.
22:47
Speaker 2: They're like, great, you know, a bear.
22:50
Speaker 1: Must have come through, because bears were in this area,
22:52
Speaker 1: so this is like a nuisance at this point. This
22:55
Speaker 1: is not confirmation that the pond is haunted and that
22:58
Speaker 1: there's a monster here.
22:59
Speaker 2: They're just like, great, we got to reset up our
23:02
Speaker 2: camp now.
23:02
Speaker 1: So the two men walked over to their destroyed campsite
23:05
Speaker 1: and began rebuilding it.
23:07
Speaker 2: But as they.
23:08
Speaker 1: Were you know, putting their lean to back together and
23:10
Speaker 1: you know, packaging up their gear back into their bags.
23:13
Speaker 2: Something really stood out that was pretty odd.
23:16
Speaker 1: So they're thinking that a bear must have come through here,
23:19
Speaker 1: and why would a bear come through here? Why would
23:21
Speaker 1: a bear tear all this stuff apart? Well, because the
23:24
Speaker 1: bear would be looking for food, as bears are known
23:27
Speaker 1: to do. But as they're packaging things up, both Smith
23:30
Speaker 1: and Balwmon are seeing that none of their food was taken, like,
23:34
Speaker 1: no food has been taken, and quite a bit of
23:36
Speaker 1: it was out in the open, so there certainly was opportunity,
23:39
Speaker 1: but it wasn't. And so they're thinking that's so weird, Like,
23:43
Speaker 1: clearly a big effort was made to look through the
23:46
Speaker 1: campsite for something, you know, it wasn't like an animal
23:49
Speaker 1: came over and just batting it around and then left.
23:52
Speaker 1: There had to be a reason, like what were they
23:53
Speaker 1: looking for? Like, what's going on here? That's so odd?
23:57
Speaker 1: But both men figured that what likely had happened here
24:00
Speaker 1: was as they were coming back down the hill, this
24:03
Speaker 1: bear must have heard them and.
24:04
Speaker 2: Ran off before taking their food.
24:06
Speaker 1: And so ultimately they felt like they had just gotten
24:09
Speaker 1: really lucky here, And so Bauman went to go start
24:13
Speaker 1: a campfire to make their dinner and Smith finished putting.
24:16
Speaker 2: Back together their lean to camp.
24:17
Speaker 1: But just a little while later, as Smith reconstructed their
24:21
Speaker 1: lean to, he couldn't shake the feeling that there really
24:25
Speaker 1: was something odd about whatever had happened here. You know,
24:29
Speaker 1: they had this explanation that maybe they got lucky, but
24:32
Speaker 1: it just felt sort of weird, especially considering that there
24:36
Speaker 1: was lots of lore about this place being kind of
24:38
Speaker 1: dangerous to people. You know, forget whether it's a curse
24:41
Speaker 1: or a monster. There was just a fear that something
24:44
Speaker 1: odd was going on here. And so Smith he said
24:47
Speaker 1: to Bauman, Hey, you know, I'm just gonna for my
24:49
Speaker 1: own sanity here. Look around and just look for tracks.
24:53
Speaker 1: Let's let's confirm that this really was a bear. And so,
24:56
Speaker 1: you know, Bauman's like, great, go for it. He's you
24:58
Speaker 1: know setting up the fire, and Smith you know, began
25:01
Speaker 1: walking away from the campsite looking for tracks. However, you know,
25:05
Speaker 1: after stepping just a few feet away from you know,
25:07
Speaker 1: the campfire and their campsite, Smith realized it was just
25:10
Speaker 1: too dark out to actually see anything on the ground.
25:13
Speaker 1: So he went back to the campsite. He grabbed a
25:15
Speaker 1: torch and he lit it in the fire that Balman
25:18
Speaker 1: had made. And then now with this light source, he
25:21
Speaker 1: left the campsite and began scanning the ground looking for,
25:23
Speaker 1: you know, the tracks from this bear. And at first
25:27
Speaker 1: he didn't see anything. There were no tracks. It was
25:29
Speaker 1: just you know, some broken leaves, and there were some
25:31
Speaker 1: broken sticks and some you know brush that had been
25:33
Speaker 1: sort of trampled over that suggested an.
25:35
Speaker 2: Animal had come through here. But again there were no tracks.
25:39
Speaker 2: And so he's walking farther and farther away from their.
25:41
Speaker 1: Campsite until he gets to this clearing that was actually
25:44
Speaker 1: not very far from their campsite. But in this clearing
25:49
Speaker 1: he found some tracks. There were these massive paw prints
25:53
Speaker 1: that were in the ground, you know, tracks from this
25:55
Speaker 1: animal with huge claws, like massive, massive paws that certainly
25:59
Speaker 1: suggests this was a bear.
26:01
Speaker 2: And in a way this was.
26:03
Speaker 1: Sort of reassuring for Smith because ultimately he was going
26:06
Speaker 1: out here to confirm that this was a bear.
26:08
Speaker 2: Right, this wasn't anything else. This was a bear.
26:11
Speaker 1: But as he's looking at these tracks and watching them
26:14
Speaker 1: sort of meander their way through this clearing and back
26:16
Speaker 1: off into the woods, he noticed something strange about these tracks. Yes,
26:22
Speaker 1: they were paw prints that certainly suggested they were a bear,
26:26
Speaker 1: but the way they were landing in the ground suggested
26:29
Speaker 1: that it was just two paws, not four, and a
26:33
Speaker 1: bear walks on all four. Whatever creature was leaving behind
26:36
Speaker 1: these prints was walking on two legs. Bears don't do that,
26:42
Speaker 1: and so Smith couldn't help but feel like a little unnerved.
26:46
Speaker 1: I mean, he's seen clear as day prints of a
26:49
Speaker 1: bipedal creature with huge paws, huge claws walking around near
26:55
Speaker 1: their campsite.
26:55
Speaker 2: I mean, what did this? Is this a bear?
26:58
Speaker 1: He knew bears could get up on their hind legs,
27:01
Speaker 1: but they don't walk very far on just their hind legs,
27:04
Speaker 1: and so this was unsettling.
27:06
Speaker 2: And again, you know, as much.
27:07
Speaker 1: As he wasn't scared of, you know, the curse or
27:10
Speaker 1: monsters that were out here. It was hard not to think,
27:14
Speaker 1: like is their truth to that stuff? And so Smith
27:17
Speaker 1: sort of rattled, you know, he turns around and hustles
27:19
Speaker 1: back to the campsite and he tells Bauman, I found
27:23
Speaker 1: tracks and I think it's bear tracks. But whatever it
27:28
Speaker 1: is is walking around on two legs. I'm telling you
27:30
Speaker 1: it's two legs. There's no four legged creature walking around.
27:35
Speaker 2: And Bawman laughed.
27:38
Speaker 1: He actually thought that Smith was just like playing a
27:40
Speaker 1: joke on him, like you're trying to scare me out here, right,
27:43
Speaker 1: But Smith is like, I'm not joking, Like I'm telling
27:46
Speaker 1: you the tracks one hundred percent are of an animal
27:48
Speaker 1: walking around on two legs, and it appears to be
27:51
Speaker 1: an enormous bear, you know. And you know Bowman at
27:54
Speaker 1: this point he's like, well, you know, bears can walk
27:56
Speaker 1: on their hind legs. But both of them are like yeah,
27:58
Speaker 1: but again not for long periods of time. And so
28:02
Speaker 1: the two men really didn't know what to make of this.
28:04
Speaker 1: I mean, by this point, their campsite was set back up,
28:06
Speaker 1: they had their fire, you know, their things are sort
28:09
Speaker 1: of back to normal, and that they're not hearing any
28:11
Speaker 1: animals or anything odd in the vicinity, and so pretty
28:14
Speaker 1: quickly they both were like, well, I guess that was
28:18
Speaker 1: just a standing bear, you know, hopefully it doesn't come back,
28:22
Speaker 1: and they just sat down by the fire and ate their dinner.
28:25
Speaker 1: So after dinner, the two men eventually did decide to
28:29
Speaker 1: just go to sleep. They were sort of in denial
28:31
Speaker 1: about the weirdness that was going on at their campsite,
28:34
Speaker 1: but they had both sort of, without saying anything, elected
28:37
Speaker 1: to just not talk about it and just bury those
28:40
Speaker 1: feelings and just ignore this gut instinct, it's almost primal
28:44
Speaker 1: instinct that something was off here.
28:46
Speaker 2: And so the two men they climbed into.
28:48
Speaker 1: Their lean two tent together and they lied down next
28:51
Speaker 1: to each other, and eventually they drifted off to sleep.
28:54
Speaker 1: Several hours later, when Smith and Bauman were both fast
28:57
Speaker 1: asleep inside of this lean to, right next to each other,
29:00
Speaker 1: there was this loud, almost moaning sound coming from somewhere
29:05
Speaker 1: in the forest, and it was loud enough that it
29:07
Speaker 1: woke both Smith and Bowman up. And so they sit
29:10
Speaker 1: up inside of their lean to. It's it's dark, but
29:12
Speaker 1: they can basically see each other, and they're sort of
29:14
Speaker 1: saying to each other like, hey, did you hear that?
29:16
Speaker 2: Like, what was that?
29:18
Speaker 1: Neither of them knew, but now they're sort of on edge,
29:20
Speaker 1: and they're just they're sitting in their lean to, obviously
29:23
Speaker 1: thinking about the fact that, you know, this bear or
29:25
Speaker 1: whatever it was had clearly come through here the day before.
29:28
Speaker 1: They're hoping it's not coming back, and they're just they're
29:31
Speaker 1: sitting there listening really intently to the noises coming from
29:34
Speaker 1: the forest. And there are regular night noises, you know,
29:37
Speaker 1: all across the forest, bugs and birds and animals, that
29:40
Speaker 1: kind of thing. But as they're straining to listen, they
29:43
Speaker 1: can hear something huge. It's making its way through the
29:47
Speaker 1: tree line in their direction, and so Bauman sort of
29:50
Speaker 1: reflexibly grabbed his rifle, and you know, he's just holding
29:53
Speaker 1: onto his rifle wondering what he's gonna do, and Smith too,
29:56
Speaker 1: is sort of not sure what to do. And then
29:58
Speaker 1: at some point, as whatever this is got close enough
30:01
Speaker 1: to their lean to, they can't see it. They're too
30:03
Speaker 1: scared to poke their head out to look, but they
30:05
Speaker 1: know it's getting closer.
30:07
Speaker 2: When it got close enough, they began to smell whatever
30:10
Speaker 2: it was.
30:11
Speaker 1: It was like this musty earth smell, and as the
30:16
Speaker 1: two men are like getting ready to actually make a
30:18
Speaker 1: plan about what to do, like, obviously this thing is back,
30:22
Speaker 1: whatever it is, they hear the noise again that woke
30:26
Speaker 1: them up, but now it's literally coming from right outside
30:29
Speaker 1: of their lean to, and it's this guttural loud, almost
30:33
Speaker 1: like human moaning sound, but it's definitely not a person.
30:37
Speaker 1: It's just this eerie, low rumbling sound, and it's right
30:42
Speaker 1: outside the tent. And Bauman, as soon as he heard this,
30:45
Speaker 1: he just turned and he aimed his rifle and fired
30:48
Speaker 1: basically roughly in the direction of where this thing was,
30:52
Speaker 1: which again is right outside their lean to. And as
30:54
Speaker 1: soon as he fired, both men heard the sound of
30:57
Speaker 1: this huge creature right outside their lean to turn and
31:01
Speaker 1: start running into the forest, just bounding through the trees.
31:05
Speaker 2: Trees are crashing.
31:06
Speaker 1: It's like it's this totally chaotic sound is this huge
31:09
Speaker 1: thing is retreating into the woods. And then at some
31:12
Speaker 1: point all the noise stops and they don't hear it again.
31:15
Speaker 1: And the two men are like so frightened by whatever
31:19
Speaker 1: this was. It certainly didn't feel like a bear. They
31:22
Speaker 1: had not smelled something like that, They had certainly not
31:24
Speaker 1: heard a sound like that.
31:25
Speaker 2: And just the way it was moving.
31:27
Speaker 1: It was so agile and so huge, and did sound
31:31
Speaker 1: like something that was walking sort of upright, like even
31:34
Speaker 1: just the steps it was taking right outside their lean
31:36
Speaker 1: to it, just it didn't sound like a typical animal
31:39
Speaker 1: moving around.
31:40
Speaker 2: This This was different. And so the two men.
31:43
Speaker 1: There, they're terrified, and they're just up all night, you know,
31:46
Speaker 1: waiting for this thing to come back. By the time
31:48
Speaker 1: the sun finally rose the next morning, Smith was so
31:52
Speaker 1: anxious and so exhausted that he actually felt sick. He
31:57
Speaker 1: didn't want to leave the campsite because this trip was
32:00
Speaker 1: ultimately about making money and they had not caught any
32:03
Speaker 1: beavers yet, so this was not a profitable trip yet.
32:06
Speaker 1: But if they left now, I mean, they definitely wouldn't
32:09
Speaker 1: be catching anything, and this really would be a net loss. However,
32:13
Speaker 1: both he and Bauman both agreed that you know, whatever
32:16
Speaker 1: kind of creature here kept coming back to their campsite,
32:19
Speaker 1: it certainly did not act, walk or sound like a bear.
32:23
Speaker 2: Whatever it was, clearly it was dangerous.
32:26
Speaker 1: So ultimately, what Bauman and Smith decide to do is
32:30
Speaker 1: they are going to basically wrap up this trip early.
32:34
Speaker 1: But first they're going to go check all those beiaber
32:37
Speaker 1: traps they had set both around the pond and up
32:40
Speaker 1: the hill next to that stream. But normally they would
32:43
Speaker 1: do this together and it would take a really long
32:45
Speaker 1: time to go to each and every trap and check it,
32:47
Speaker 1: and you know, if there was a beaber in there
32:49
Speaker 1: to work through that. So what they decided to do instead,
32:52
Speaker 1: in order to be expeditious and be really quick, is
32:56
Speaker 1: they would split up.
32:57
Speaker 2: You know, it's broad daylight.
32:58
Speaker 1: They figured they were safe here from what this creature was,
33:01
Speaker 1: and they would split up. They would divide and conquer,
33:03
Speaker 1: check all the traps, and then meet back at the
33:05
Speaker 1: campsite before it was dark, pack up and leave.
33:08
Speaker 2: A little while later, Bauman.
33:10
Speaker 1: Had finished checking all the traps that he was responsible for,
33:13
Speaker 1: and he had come back with three beavers over his shoulder,
33:16
Speaker 1: and he was feeling pretty good. It was pretty quick
33:18
Speaker 1: checking his traps. He's thinking, great, our plan's gonna work.
33:21
Speaker 1: You know, I bet Smith is done too. We can
33:23
Speaker 1: pack up and get out of here, hopefully really soon.
33:26
Speaker 1: And so he's walking towards the campsite and he can
33:28
Speaker 1: see it up ahead, and at first glance, everything looked
33:31
Speaker 1: to be in normal order, you know, the lean to
33:33
Speaker 1: was still set up, and he could see there were
33:35
Speaker 1: some gears stacked up on the ground, and so as
33:38
Speaker 1: Bauman got closer to the camp he began calling out
33:41
Speaker 1: to his friend to Smith, and Smith didn't call back.
33:44
Speaker 1: Now Bawman didn't really know if Smith was actually back
33:47
Speaker 1: to the campsite yet, he could still be out checking
33:50
Speaker 1: his traps. So Bawman he walks into the campsite and
33:53
Speaker 1: Smith is not there. But that gear that he saw
33:56
Speaker 1: from a distance sort of stacked up in the middle
33:58
Speaker 1: of the campsite, well it was Smith, and he had
34:01
Speaker 1: packed it all up and stacked it there, which certainly
34:03
Speaker 1: suggested that Smith had finished checking his traps, had packed
34:07
Speaker 1: his stuff, and had to be nearby like he was
34:09
Speaker 1: getting ready to leave too.
34:11
Speaker 2: And so Bawman's thinking, Okay.
34:12
Speaker 1: I've just got to find him, you know, maybe he
34:14
Speaker 1: walked off somewhere as he's waiting for me, And so
34:16
Speaker 1: Bawman he puts his beavers down and continues calling out
34:19
Speaker 1: for Smith, just sort of wandering around, you know, the
34:22
Speaker 1: rough vicinity of the campsite, you know, hoping to find Smith.
34:26
Speaker 1: But Smith never calls back, and Bawman's getting a little worried.
34:29
Speaker 1: You know, again, they're obviously on edge here. Some weird
34:32
Speaker 1: things have been happening here. That creature obviously totally freaked
34:35
Speaker 1: them out. And so you know, Bauman is yelling louder
34:38
Speaker 1: and louder, and he's sort of moving faster and faster,
34:41
Speaker 1: trying to find some sign of where Smith went. And
34:44
Speaker 1: at some point, Bauman makes his way into that clearing
34:47
Speaker 1: where the night before Smith had actually found those tracks
34:50
Speaker 1: that showed, you know, this bipedal creature moving around. And
34:54
Speaker 1: when Bauman made his way into that clearing, he just
34:57
Speaker 1: stopped because the first thing he saw there was blood
35:01
Speaker 1: all over this clearing. It was like a bloodbath everywhere.
35:05
Speaker 1: And then on the other side of the clearing, sort
35:08
Speaker 1: of draped up against this tree, was like this, this
35:12
Speaker 1: heap of meat. That heap of meat was Smith. Smith
35:18
Speaker 1: had been absolutely ripped to shreds, like his body was
35:23
Speaker 1: just destroyed. His limbs were all in different directions, like
35:26
Speaker 1: he was ripped to pieces. And in Bowman, he didn't
35:30
Speaker 1: even have to go over to check to see if
35:32
Speaker 1: he was dead. He was definitely dead. There's no creature
35:35
Speaker 1: in the area. It's totally silent, eerily silent, and Bowman
35:39
Speaker 1: like he's just staring at his friend, wondering, like what
35:42
Speaker 1: does he even do? But as he's standing there staring
35:45
Speaker 1: at this just horrific scene, something else clicked. If it
35:50
Speaker 1: had been an animal that attacked his friend Smith, if
35:53
Speaker 1: an animal was responsible for this, it likely would have
35:57
Speaker 1: eaten Smith, or there would have been signs that Smith
36:00
Speaker 1: was eaten by this animal.
36:03
Speaker 2: But Smith had no signs of predation. Smith had no.
36:07
Speaker 1: Signs that an animal was trying to eat him. His
36:10
Speaker 1: whole body was just ripped apart, like whatever killed him
36:13
Speaker 1: just wanted to kill him and basically fling him around.
36:17
Speaker 2: Like a toy as he was being killed.
36:19
Speaker 1: And so at this point, almost like instinctively, Bauman knew
36:24
Speaker 1: two things. One, the creature clearly killed Smith. There was
36:30
Speaker 1: no other explanation that made sense here. He didn't understand
36:33
Speaker 1: you know, why or even how, but the creature had
36:36
Speaker 1: to have done this. And two, the creature was not
36:41
Speaker 1: a bear. Couldn't have been a bear. There's too many
36:43
Speaker 1: obvious signs that what they're dealing with here is not
36:47
Speaker 1: a bear or really any animal he had ever run into.
36:51
Speaker 1: And then also sort of a third thing was you know,
36:53
Speaker 1: Bauman's thinking, I wasn't that far away, like this horrifically
36:58
Speaker 1: violent attack. It sort of happened silently or just fast
37:04
Speaker 1: enough that, you know, Smith didn't have time to scream.
37:07
Speaker 1: It's like this, this creature killed almost surgically, despite the
37:12
Speaker 1: sort of gratuitous nature of the scene. And so all
37:15
Speaker 1: that said to Bauman is he needed to leave right now,
37:19
Speaker 1: and so he literally left his friend, He left all
37:22
Speaker 1: the supplies, He just turned and fled. Over the next
37:26
Speaker 1: several decades, Bauman just lied about what happened to Smith.
37:31
Speaker 1: He told people that while they were out there, Smith.
37:33
Speaker 2: Was attacked and killed by a bear.
37:36
Speaker 1: And the reason he did that and did not tell
37:38
Speaker 1: people that, well, it was some bipedal monster that you know,
37:41
Speaker 1: wandered the woods and slaughtered my friend. You know, the
37:44
Speaker 1: reason he didn't say that is because he felt like
37:47
Speaker 1: nobody would believe him, that he would look crazy, and that,
37:49
Speaker 1: of course, like he's feeding into this this rumor that
37:52
Speaker 1: this particular area is cursed and there's a monster out there.
37:55
Speaker 1: He just didn't think people would take him seriously, so
37:58
Speaker 1: he kept it to himself. That was until about forty
38:01
Speaker 1: years later, when Bauman met this man that he felt
38:04
Speaker 1: like he could trust with his real story. This man
38:07
Speaker 1: was an avid hunter and he was collecting unique stories
38:11
Speaker 1: for a book he was writing about wilderness exploration. And
38:14
Speaker 1: to Bawman, it felt like his story was a fit.
38:17
Speaker 1: So Bauman told him the truth. He told him all
38:19
Speaker 1: about you know, what they experienced out there, and you
38:22
Speaker 1: know the fact that he did not believe it was
38:24
Speaker 1: a bear. He felt like it was a monster, if
38:26
Speaker 1: you will. And this man who's hearing this story took
38:30
Speaker 1: Bauman really seriously. He took detailed notes as Bauman was
38:34
Speaker 1: recounting this, you know, horrific thing, and then he ultimately
38:37
Speaker 1: published Bauman's account in his book. In the book, the
38:40
Speaker 1: writer described this this creature that Bauman and Smith encountered
38:44
Speaker 1: in the woods as quote, something either half human or
38:48
Speaker 1: half devil, some great goblin beast. Now, to modern audiences,
38:53
Speaker 1: when you hear the details of the story, the one
38:56
Speaker 1: I've just shared with you, I mean, the monster really
38:58
Speaker 1: sounds an awful lot like Bigfoot, or at least something
39:02
Speaker 1: bigfoot adjacent.
39:03
Speaker 2: But the writer published this book published.
39:06
Speaker 1: Bowman's account in eighteen ninety three, which was more than
39:09
Speaker 1: sixty years before the term bigfoot even existed. So today
39:14
Speaker 1: Bigfoot believers cite this book, in particular Bawman's experience as
39:19
Speaker 1: one of the very first documented accounts ever of a
39:23
Speaker 1: monster that is now ubiquitous.
39:25
Speaker 2: But the writer of this book did.
39:27
Speaker 1: Not go down in history, as you know, being remembered
39:30
Speaker 1: for documenting Bigfoot essentially for the first time, or at
39:33
Speaker 1: least before anybody knew.
39:34
Speaker 2: You know, what Bigfoot was.
39:36
Speaker 1: No, Instead, the writer would go down in history for
39:41
Speaker 1: what he did eight years after publishing that book. That
39:45
Speaker 1: was when he was elected as America's twenty sixth president.
39:50
Speaker 1: The writer was Theodore Roosevelt. Thank you so much for watching.
40:02
Speaker 1: Let me know what you thought of today's episode in
40:03
Speaker 1: the comments. And remember, we have hundreds of videos for
40:07
Speaker 1: you to binge right now. But if you're looking for
40:10
Speaker 1: a recommendation for me of that one video that's worth
40:13
Speaker 1: your time, well it's this one right here.
40:16
Speaker 2: So give it a watch, all right, until next time,
40:18
Speaker 2: see ya,